Featured Research

Time Running Out On Coral Reefs As Climate Change Becomes Increasing Threat

Date:

December 15, 2008

Source:

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network

Summary:

Increasing pressures from climate change will reach a tipping point in less than a decade, triggering a significant decline in the health of the planet's coral reef ecosystems according to the findings in an international report. Coral reefs continue to be threatened from direct human activities of pollution and over-fishing, but now the threat of climate change is being recognized as the major threat to the future of reefs around the world.

Share This

Located off the northeastern coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. Increasing pressures from climate change will reach a tipping point in less than a decade triggering a significant decline in the health of the planet's coral reef ecosystems according to the findings in an international report.

Increasing pressures from climate change will reach a tipping point in less than a decade triggering a significant decline in the health of the planet's coral reef ecosystems according to the findings in an international report.

Related Articles

Released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network and the International Coral Reef Initiative, international governmental and scientific partnerships, "Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2008" provides both good and bad news while sounding the call for urgent global action to respond to climate change.

Coral reefs continue to be threatened from direct human activities of pollution and over-fishing, but now the threat of climate change is being recognized as the major threat to the future of reefs around the world. One fifth of the Earth's coral reefs have disappeared since 1950, and a NOAA authored report issued in July states that more that that nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition.

"Unless the world gets serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years, it is likely there will be massive bleaching and deaths of corals around the world," notes the report's lead editor and global coral authority Clive Wilkinson who coordinates the Global Coral Monitoring Network in Australia. "This will have significant impacts on the lives of the people in developing countries who are dependent on reefs for food, for tourism, and for protecting the land they live on."

This status report was put together from 370 contributors in 96 countries and states and is the most authoritative report on the world's coral reefs. The report presents regional assessments of the health coral reef ecosystems found throughout the world, the threats they face, and recommendations for action. A new feature of the 2008 reporting is publication of a separate report, "Socioeconomic Conditions along the World's Tropical Coasts: 2008," detailing socioeconomic data on how people use coral reefs in 27 developing tropical coastal countries.

The status report includes satellite date from NOAA's Coral Reef Watch project which measures stress to reefs from temperature globally and resulting bleaching. NOAA recently started tracking ocean acidification changes in the Caribbean.

Frequent or long-term bleaching kills or severely weakens corals, leaving them more vulnerable to disease, and resulting in a sea bottom covered with algae and sponges that may eventually smother remaining coral. Acidification is a growing threat that could imperil the ability of corals to build their skeletons. A number of recent studies demonstrate that ocean acidification is likely to harm coral reefs by slowing coral growth and making reefs more vulnerable to erosion and storms.

In good news the report, which is issued every four years, found that there was major recovery of reefs in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific from climate change induced bleaching events in 1998 - especially those reefs that were in protected areas. Other reefs cited as being in healthy condition included Australian reefs in general, most notably the Great Barrier Reef, the remote reef systems of the Pacific and Indian Ocean that suffer little human impacts and some small areas of the Caribbean.

The report also acknowledges that increased awareness such as that promoted by 2008 being designated "International Year of the Reef" is beginning to have an impact pointing to a series of major conservation initiatives that have been announced in recent years including the Coral Triangle Initiative in Asia, the Micronesia and Caribbean Challenges, and the creation of the two largest marine protected areas in the world: in the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati and the U.S. Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

In addition to climate change, negative impacts to corals in the past four years included the Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricane damage which combined with bleaching has endangered wide ranges of Caribbean coral reefs, and increasing human activity pressures including pollution, development, deforestation and overfishing in East Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, populated areas of the Pacific and Caribbean. One particular threat is the increase in "bomb" and cyanide fishing in Asia and in Tanzania.

The assessment includes detailed recommendations to preserve and better manage reef ecosystems. Human pollution and fishing pressures have to be reduced while the development of sustainable tourism activities can protect the reefs while stimulating economic growth. The report also encourages increased use of marine protected areas as a means of ensuring reefs can continue to protect important fish nursery areas and serve as reservoirs of marine biodiversity.

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network receives support from governmental and non-governmental organizations including the U.S. Department of State, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the World Bank and the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to publish this survey of the health of the world's coral reefs and diagnoses solutions for halting and reversing their decline.

More From ScienceDaily

More Earth & Climate News

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015  Until now electric fences and trenches have proved to be the most effective way of protecting farms and villages from night time raids by hungry elephants. But researchers think they may have come up ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Researchers have detected a human fingerprint deep in the Borneo rainforest in Southeast Asia. Cold winds blowing from the north carry industrial pollutants from East Asia to the equator, with ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Landfills can make a profit from all their rotting waste and a new patent explains exactly how to make the most out of the stinky garbage sites. Decomposing trash produces methane, a landfill gas ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  As the five-year anniversary of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig approaches, a new report looks at how twenty species of wildlife are faring in the aftermath of the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  Scientists have discovered why the first buds of spring come increasingly earlier as the climate changes. As the climate changes the sweet spot for seeds comes earlier in the year, so first flowers ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  In the 1990s the discovery of the oldest human made and completely preserved wooden hunting weapons made the Paleolithic excavation site in Schoningen internationally renowned. Contained within the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015  The adverse health effects caused by fine particles have been known for some time. In addition, ultrafine particles appear to play a significant role in cardiac function -- even if an individual is ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  Researchers have identified a new source of methane for gas hydrates -- ice-like substances found in sediment that trap methane within the crystal structure of frozen water -- in the Arctic Ocean. ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015  A new study reports that marine ecosystems can take thousands, rather than hundreds, of years to recover from climate-related upheavals. The study's authors analyzed thousands of invertebrate fossils ... full story

Related Stories

Apr. 29, 2014  Increasing ocean temperatures due to climate change will soon see reefs retaining and nurturing more of their own coral larvae, leaving large reef systems less interconnected and potentially more ... full story

Sep. 18, 2013  A team of scientists from Canada and Australia have discovered that the decline in shark populations is detrimental to coral reefs. Where shark numbers are reduced due to commercial fishing, there is ... full story

June 5, 2013  Better land use is the key to preventing further damage to the world's coral reefs, according to new research. The study has important implications for Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The ... full story

July 5, 2012  A new article shows how natural climatic shifts stopped reef growth in the eastern Pacific for 2,500 years. The reef shutdown, which began 4,000 years ago, corresponds to a period of dramatic swings ... full story

Apr. 12, 2012  As ocean temperatures rise, some species of corals are likely to succeed at the expense of others, according to a new report that details the first large-scale investigation of climate effects on ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.